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HOUSE OF GUCCI
Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jared Leto, Jeremy Irons, Jack Huston, Salma Hayek, Camille Cottin MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:37 Release Date: 11/24/21 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | November 23, 2021 Here is a movie, based on a true story of multiple business betrayals and personal deceits and crimes (including a fairly infamous one), that does fine work explaining who did what, how it happened, and the likely whys of an increasingly complicated and ultimately fatal series of messes. House of Gucci isn't a documentary, but this dramatization of the ups and final downs of the eponymous family, as well as their involvement in the business that still possesses the family's name, possesses the dry, detached tone and style of the kind of straightforward dramatic re-enactment that one might find in a work of true-crime non-fiction. It's admirably to-the-point but lacking a certain verve. The story could have been told by director Ridley Scott in any number of ways and in a variety of fashions (No pun intended). At first, Becky Johnston and Roberto Bentivegna's screenplay, adapted from the non-fiction book The House of Gucci by Sara Gay Forden, follows the lying, stalking, and manipulative ways of Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga), who meets a wealthy man—the rightful heir to a global fashion empire—by chance at a party in Milan in 1970. It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance for her. Patrizia, who works at her father's trucking company, will do pretty much anything to ensure her complete attachment to and control over this man, who could give her everything she wants in life—which, by her account, is everything. Watching as Patrizia charms and woos and follows and seduces Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver), we can sense the planning and execution of an emotional and psychological scheme on her part. Gaga, whose accent is particularly abrasive at first but gradually seems an inseparable part of this abrasive character, is one a several very effective performances here, as Scott leaves the development of Patrizia's plan to the actor's stares and quiet moments of calculation. Driver is also quite good as the patsy in her design, a man so sheltered in wealth and limitless possibilities that he is completely ignorant of the notion that someone might intend to use him for that wealth and those possibilities. There's an awkwardness to the actor's interpretation that makes us think, as unlikely as it may seem, that this is the first time he has ever socialized with a woman he finds and who finds him attractive. The setup for something—some narrative drive, some tonal approach, some bigger purpose—is right there from the start. Is this a satirical or devious look at someone who schemes her way into a life well beyond her dreams? Should we be looking from the perspective of Maurizio, who becomes almost as important to this story as—if not more so than—Patrizia when the business side of things takes focus, and see this as a thriller in progress or a potential tragedy in the making? We keep waiting for some declaration of intent or cohesion of tone from the filmmakers, but as more characters and more complications—both personal and professional—arise, it becomes clear that Scott and the screenwriters are simply content to tell this story, as it apparently happened and with only the facts of it to keep us engaged. It's fairly intriguing, this years-long dissection of familial ties on the brink and business opportunities exploited or brought to ruin and one woman's influence over all of it, but the movie never quite digs beneath its surface level of scheming and treachery. The plot involves Patrizia and Maurizio's romance and marriage, which doesn't sit well with his father Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons), a former actor who owns half the shares of the family's fashion empire. Father and son become estranged, and while Patrizia seems content and Maurizio seems thrilled with an ordinary working-class life, she makes certain that her husband finds his way back into his family's good graces. When Maurizio's uncle Aldo (a subdued Al Pacino, equal parts charming and weary) invites the couple to his birthday party, Patrizia convinces her husband to attend. Aldo believes his nephew is the only family member who can continue the Gucci business dynasty. It's definitely not Aldo's own son Paolo (Jared Leto, playing this joke of character well beneath layers of transformative makeup), who's design sense is as ridiculous and garish as his manner is foppish. A death in the family, some major tax evasion, and a few behind-the-scenes business deals/back-stabbings unfold. Patrizia gets everything she wants and, at times, almost seems genuine in the heartbreak and uncertainty that follow. For his part, Maurizio, either following his wife's lead or showing his true colors, starts to become almost as ruthless in his private and professional affairs as her. Whether there's a limit to the knowledge of the truth behind the real-life story or the screenwriters feel in a rush to get through the assorted complications, the movie's attention to communicating character and motive starts to fade. There's a growing and distancing coldness to various incidents and events, as if the screenplay simply wants to relate the facts, and it doesn't help that the characters, performing and caught up in assorted plans, become just as chilly and hollow. That's not simply a matter of personality. They're swallowed up by the focus on plotting. House of Gucci tells a fascinating story. Its straightforward and indifferent approach, though, only takes the material so far. Copyright © 2021 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for language, some sexual content, and brief nudity and violence)
